Dancing With The Stars Rehearsal

I need to learn how to dance ASAP.

by Alyssa Ramos

Yesterday I got to dance with the stars! Well not really. I can’t dance. But they did offer! And I did get to watch them dance, and more importantly got to gaze longingly into Brant Daugherty‘s (@brantdaugherty) ice blue eyes. Sigh. If I wasn’t half drunk and hadn’t of looked like complete shit, and if his partner Peta Murgatroyd didn’t have a sexy accent AND dance moves, I totally would have hollered. But that’s what happens when business lunch meetings go well in Hollywood.

I was supposed to be meeting with a good friend of mine to discuss me potentially working for him at Social Hill Gifting Suite doing celeb coverage, but obviously lunch meetings never turn out the way they’re supposed to. As we lunched at Villa Blanca in Beverly Hills, and got sidetracked with his stories of walking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, and my plans to help orphans in South Africa, we accidentally drank about four glasses of wine each before addressing the original topic of interest.

Feeling bad about the business lunch-turned-gossip sesh he had the sudden idea that he would just put me to work right away and bring me with him to his meeting with the cast and crew of Dancing With The Stars. At first I tried to opt out, because I had a lot of really important things to do like not be drunk in public, but I decided that it might make for a good story on that random Wednesday afternoon. And it did.

When we pulled up to the rehearsal studio in East Hollywood, there were already paparazzi lined up in the parking lot. I just so happened to be wearing a high bun, large Chanel sunglasses,  multiple stranded pearls, and a long black and white dress and was being driven in a Range Rover, so they went to town with taking photos, making me feel like shit for not being famous. Ugh.

I tried to keep my sunglasses on as long as possible inside to hide my drunk eyes but eventually started feeling like a fake diva, well that and I couldn’t see inside the dimly corridor that let to the various studios. We went into one of the dance studios to say hi to the producer, Chad Harrison who was filming

Corbin Bleu from High School Musical, and his dancing partner Karina Smirnoff rehearsing. Karina’s dance moves also made me feel like shit because they were so good and it looked so fun, and I just wanted to play tooooooo. Corbin joined her after very politely saying hello to us, it was shockingly impressive to see a guy be able to do all of those intense dance moves in rhythm with a professional. Well I guess he did dance in High School Musical so…my money might be on them winning…

My friend awkwardly forced me to take a picture with the producer, which I haven’t decided if I’ll post yet because I look like a complete weirdo…it’s not easy taking a good picture after four glasses of wine, but it’s really easy to take a bad one. He looks hot though, and he was really cool, so I’ll go ahead and sacrifice potential judgements about my appearance for him.

Next we saw Brant Daugherty and Peta who were both on break from rehearsing. They had an amazing dynamic and bond; I could tell they work really well with each other…or have crushes on each other… I prefer the prior but who wouldn’t have a freaking crush on that guy. It’s just. Not. Fair. Sigh.

I noticed two other guys to my left, one who happened to also be extremely cute…but he was flossing. “Are you…flossing?” I asked casually. I think I threw him off guard because he immediately stopped and put it away…then his friend started calling him Flossy. Oops.

I followed behind my friend like a lost puppy as he brought in the boxes of really cool items to give away to the cast for publicity. Being the one of the top celebrity gifting suites and the exclusive gifting suite for Dancing With the Stars means he gets a lot of really cool shit to give to them to wear and use. (Btw if anyone is trying to get celeb publicity for their brands, let me know). So not only was I not famous, not dancing, and not allowed to flirt with the hot guy, I was also not getting any cool free stuff. I really need to re-evaluate my career. It was sweet to see how excited they were about getting new dance wear though.

They seemed fun, and nice…possibly because my friend told them I’m a blogger and people tend to be wary of our ability to publicly voice our opinions to large audiences, but whatever. As long as I got to stare into those baby blues they could’ve said anything. Just kidding I probably would have written about it. There was a funny incident with Peta laughing about one of the leggings that was way too big, making the crotch look like a saggy…crotch, and making some sort of slurping noise, but with all of the sagginess of Miley Cyrus‘ ass that’s posted everywhere, and her tendency to simulate sex acts, it really wasn’t that shocking.

Anyway now I’m super biased for who I want to win (Brant obviously), but I’m pretty excited to see how a few others do. My friend asked me who I wanted to interview (besides Brant), and assumed I would say Snooki, but  I told him I wanted nothing to do with Snooki 2.0 or whatever the hell she calls herself now that she’s trying to be a respectable human. I scrolled through the cast list as he waited for me to pick out some celebrity when I saw…could it be?! BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY?! Yes please!!! My inner science nerd came out in full throttle, I was so excited that I think it scared him a little. (I also tried explaining my excitement to George Maloof and Bono last night at Pearls but they had no idea what I was talking about or why not only me, but Steph also, was so excited about Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Yay we’re young!).

I’m pretty excited to watch it now, and not just because of Brant and Bill…because I can talk about them like we’re old pals and all…but because the dancing is so freaking good that it makes me sad that I don’t dance. But maybe I’ll start to! In appreciation for all those who learn to, love to, and/or teach dance, I’ve decided to share a few videos from one of my Delta Gamma sorority sisters at FSU, Emily Tarallo who is a Golden Girl dancer and now has a studio where she has turned her talent into a very rewarding and fun job. I think I have a new idddeaaaaa!